One of the largest clothing retailers in Britain is about to take on its rival Marks & Spencer by offering a new much more generous policy on high street for shoppers that want to return goods.
Starting in the middle of this week, the George at Asda supermarket label will release its new permanent 100 day ‘no quibble’ guarantee for every item in its clothing range in a bid to stop the trend of fashion ‘throwaways.’ The new return policy is aimed to allow customers that are not fully happy with any item they purchase from the range to get a full refund for their purchase even if the item has already been worn and washed.
Asda plans to stand out against rival M&S’s return policy by showing that it has a strong commitment to offering quality clothing at an affordable price that is designed to last versus the return policy at M&S which has been reduced twice over the last four years spurring vicious customer complaints.
In spring of 2009 M&S shortened its return period from 90 days to 35 which was met with harsh criticism from its consumers. The company argued that most people return goods within 28 days and that around 66% return goods within two weeks.
The move at Asda by George follows a trial period of the policy on all school uniforms last July that offered customers 100 days to return any uniform purchased if they are not happy with the quality of the product.
Business leaders are pushing the government to develop a plan that will balance the public finances by the year 2016 when is two years earlier than originally planned.
The CBI believes that this target date could be reached if spending is lowered overall and the public sector underwent reform. The organization claims that the government has used tax rises to try and reduce the public finance deficit which has done more damage than goof and wants the plans for an increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions to be abolished.
According to the CBI, going ahead with the increase in contributions would have a taxing effect on employment levels and is ‘ill-advised.’ It is also pushing for Chancellor Alistair Darling to make use of his last Budget before the general election in order to detail Whitehall department spending plans so that a higher level of economic stability is reached.
Director of the CBI, Richard Lambert, wrote a letter to Darling that suggested the UK fiscal credibility and economic growth fostering should be the primary concerns of the soon to be announced budget.
Lambert wrote that the Government needs to start laying a pathway that is credible towards balancing the deficit because while investors abroad are worried about the debt, they will give the UK a break up until the election takes place.
Other suggestions made by the CBI include one that if public money were spent in a better fashion over £130bn could be saved every year.
If you want to be soothed and reassured about the current economic situation, don’t turn to Sir Martin Sorrell. He tells it like he sees it, and he doesn’t approve of sugar-coating.
Sorrell is the founder and chief executive officer of WPP, the largest advertising group in the world.
Since advertising is probably the first expense to be cut back in an economic downturn, it is one of the main indicators of the current and future state of economic health in changing times, and Sorrell’s recent remarks are of interest to everyone in the advertising industry. He feels that the worst is over and the industry is stabilizing, but he only expects to break even in 2010.
Events such as the Vancouver Winter Olympics, the South Africa football World Cup and the Shanghai World Expo are all big money-makers for the advertising industry, and so are the U.S. midterm congressional elections in the world’s biggest advertising market.
However, Sorrell figures that even if the second half of 2010 shows a revenue surge, it will only serve to balance out the lousy first half, not necessarily indicating strong growth for the industry in general.
Sorrell’s caution in this regard is practically a trademark; after the dotcom crash in the first two years of the 2000’s, he disagreed with other industry forecasters who predicted a quick rebound, and he was correct. At present he is saying that though the worst may be over, a full recovery is going to take some time.
The monetary policy committee of the Bank of England voted on Thursday to hold the interest rates at .5% and not to extend its programme of cash injections back into the economy.
The decision was expected by most and comes as the state of the economy showed mixed signs during the early months of 2010.
Although the service and retail sector showed signs of weakness during January which may have partially been due to the heavy snows, February showed signs of recovery activity. Overall the housing market once again seems to be weakening with prices starting to fall in February according to measures by both Halifax and Nationwide.
Measures that the Bank has been watching have also shown positive trends such as the M4 money which rose by about two percent in the first quarter of 2010, a drastic change from their steady decrease over the four prior months.
They currently have quantitative easing in place is which is the policy of creating money in the economy so that people spend more, which is aimed at helping to prevent a decline in the supply of money as banks reduce the amount of credit they issue.
In their statement on Thursday the Bank reinforced their previous stance that they will not change their current monetary policy except for in months where inflation forecasts for the quarter are available.
The last time that forecasts were published was back in February which prompted the MPC to put a hold on quantitative easing, which will be looked into again in May when the next set are published.
Costa is quickly becoming the rising star in the Whitbread group due to their new flat offering of a strong white coffee called the ‘flat white’ three weeks ago. The group reported that sales grew for all three of their businesses- Premier Inn, Beefeater, and Costa- which are spread across the UK.
Across Britain there are 1,066 Costa shops and in total Whitbread has 1,500 shops with plans to double the size of the brand over the course of the next four years according to chief executive Alan Parker. At least 1,500 of the new stores are planned for locations throughout the UK.
Parker is due to retire this coming November and some analysts believe that the person who takes his place may spin off Costa or sell it, but Parker pushed the issue aside as nonsense.
Premier Inn, the budget hotel chain, also saw strong sales last quarter due to a promotion that was headlined by Lenny Henry the comedian and offered rooms at £29 a month. The growth in sales was significant given that the last several quarters the chain experienced a steady decline.
Parker referenced this fact noting that the 1.7% increase in the last quarter was raised due to the fact that comparables last year were weak. Although revenue per room fell flat last quarter Parker still felt there was enough of a scope to make the expansion from 42,000 UK rooms to 70,000 UK rooms practical.
Also experiencing growth were the pub-restaurants owned by the chain with a total sales growth of three percent over the last quarter and total sales up by nine percent.
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